Now, fans of the show Mythbusters know about Buster the crash test dummy they subject to all kinds of cruel and inhuman tests in the name of science. If you don’t then you are a poorer person for it. In honour of Buster I have decided to volunteer myself as a SharePoint crash test dummy so you can see what happens when you install SharePoint in different scenarios. Are you ready? Here we go. One, two, three…

I downloaded SharePoint Server 2010 Beta (Enterprise CAL features) first and decided to throw it onto SBS 2008 initially. Now boys and girls don’t attempt this at home as I am a trained SharePoint Professional with far too much time on his hands. And in all seriousness, please don’t install beta enterprise software on a production server. Please!

The end result?

A flaming wreck that kinda looks like what happens when you try and install Search Server Express 2008 on SBS 2008. The files get copied but the configuration wizard bombs. So now you know. SharePoint Server 2010 beta doesn’t install on SBS 2008 by default. NEEEEEEXT.

Now I wonder what happens if you instead use the SharePoint Foundation 2010 beta on SBS 2008? More details of what’s sure to be another flaming wreck on SBS 2008 soon.